


SSOWeek - September 2015

by Centeris2



Category: Star Stable, Star Stable Online, Starshine Legacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 21:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7861939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Centeris2/pseuds/Centeris2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another set created for SSOWeek in 2015. The prompts were:<br/>Echo<br/>Race<br/>Fashion<br/>Practice<br/>Shadow<br/>Forest<br/>Halloween</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Echo

Rebecca stared at the screen, her fingers tapping in irritation mingled with thought as she read and reread the text before her. After a moment of thought she switched to another window.

“I keep going between liking her and rolling my eyes,” Rebecca typed into the message window, and a moment later added, “I replied to her. It may end in a fight. It may end in a beautiful relationship. Or it’ll end in nothing interesting at all.”

Anna would not see the messages for several hours, being on the other side of the world, but Rebecca continued to send thoughts and updates on what transpired. There was something about the entire matter that rubbed her the wrong way, and it wasn’t hard for her to pinpoint. She didn’t like when people were disrespectful or condescending toward Anna, even though that may not have been the intent. The more puzzling emotion was that she was entertained by this theorist. 

She couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time she encountered Anna. The initial impression had not gone well, Rebecca has thought Anna was snobbish and a bit haughty, she felt like Anna was someone several years older than her and looking down on Rebecca for being a young teenager. It came as a surprise to Rebecca that Anna was actually younger than her by a few years, and after the first few bumps they became fast friends. 

And now there was this girl, Echo, who Rebecca guessed was about her age give or take a few years. She was serious in her work, but in a way that was different from how Rebecca and Anna. As she had told Anna, she went between being frustrated with Echo to finding her stubbornness and passion endearing. As it turned out there was no fight but instead an odd sort of stalemate, a sort of live and let live arrangement. She let her indecisive feelings be, not needing to address them further until there was a change.

Strangely enough, it was a heated discussion about bodies that ended the decisiveness. Rebecca realized while she and Anna might disagree with Echo, quite strongly in some areas, they did not dislike her. Echo was sensible, a person could disagree with her and defend their point and it would not end in insults and bad blood. But what Rebecca was reading made the back of her neck prickle, she didn’t like reading arguments that got personal. Discussions over something as silly as a horse game should never result in personal offense, although Rebecca remembered when she was younger and had a much harder time separating disagreement and personal attacks. She supposed this was the case here, and she did not want to remain silent when she thought her word might help soothe things over to prevent the argument from escalating. From what she had seen, Echo had a temper, and France was provoking it.

“It’s a beautiful budding friendship,” Anna commented once she read what had gone down, bringing a smile to Rebecca’s face an ocean away. Even though Anna could not see her, Rebecca nodded in agreement. 

“The three of us make a great team,” Rebecca mused to herself, looking forward to what they might accomplish.


	2. Echo (again)

Shiny Ghost Ore. Yeah that sounded like a real thing, although she had already managed to mine steel with a pickax. Quite surprising, considering steel is a man made alloy and therefore should not be found in a random mine. Apparently Jorvik was a more interesting place than she had initially thought. Rebecca realized she had much to learn about this place, her first few days here on Jorvik were more exciting than she had expected. Sure, the cliquish Bobcat girls were in line with what she expected, but the immediate danger that the stable was in had put her off. Given the legal issues Thomas Moorland was facing he should have considered whether or not it would be wise for him to take on riders for the summer program. 

And yet here she was on Jorvik with Midnightwarrior, the horse assigned to her. With everything else that seemed to be going wrong, it was nice that they had gotten one thing right: she and Midnightwarrior were a perfect match. But perfect match or not, the Jorvik Warmblood was not interested in going into the tomb.

“Me too, bud,” Rebecca muttered, patting his neck as he balked and refused to set closer to the mouth of the tomb. She wondered why a tomb would double as a mine, such an act as going into a tomb to throw a pickax around and take out resources seemed like sacrilege. The traditions here must be different, they must not worry about grave robbing, or perhaps even someone as important as a Jarl wasn’t buried with anything worth stealing?

She dismounted, holding onto the reins as she thought. The horse was skittish and refused to step past a certain point, but he did not seem like he was going to bolt as soon as she let go.

“Stay here, alright? I’ll be back soon,” she told her horse, having the strange feeling he understood her perfectly. With that done and her horse watching her closely she walked into the mine, pick in hand. Her footsteps echoed in the cavernous tomb, and she was surprised to be a lack of anything. There were a few mounds of rock that she guessed she should mine, but besides that the chamber was empty except for a door. No wonder they left the front door open: there actually wasn’t anything in the entryway to steal. Or not anymore at any rate. 

“Sorry for intruding, Conrad wants some of the ghost ore here and I said I would get him some. Uhh, hope you don’t mind,” Rebecca found herself speaking aloud, her voice bouncing off the walls and back to her. But there was something else, like something whispering the words back at her. She wasn’t sure if anyone heard her apology, or if it even mattered.

The sound of the pickax hitting the stone made her cringe, it was somehow louder in here than it had been in the other mine, or perhaps it was just the strange feeling that she wasn’t alone. She continued in silence, trying to ignore each clang that sounded like a shout of disrespect in the empty tomb. Luckily she did not need much ore, although ‘lumps’ weren’t very descriptive in terms of how much Conrad needed. 

With what looked like an adequate amount she stuffed the ore into her bag and made for the door. A gust of wind and whispers stopped her in her tracks, muttered echoes surrounding her as she spun and looked at the locked door inside the chamber. But it was sealed shut just as it had been when she entered, the wind and voices coming from nowhere.

“Did you hear that?” Rebecca asked as she backed away from the tomb, trying to brush her hair back into place. Midnightwarrior whickered at her, nudging her and surprising her by how close he had gotten to the tomb.

“Yeah… let’s just get out of here,” she muttered, stashing her equipment and mounting her horse, giving the tomb one last look before she urged Midnightwarrior onward.


	3. Race

“Do you want to know a secret, sweetie?” Rebecca asked as she looked up at the sky from her back. Midnightwarrior answered her by moving his head over her face, blades of grass falling from his mouth and onto her head. She laughed and waved his munching muzzle away.

“I’m actually not that competitive,” she confessed, watching as the horse tore up more grass with an ear on her to listen to her voice.

“Shocking, I know. I travel across an ocean to come to Jorvik to ride horses, and I’m not even interested in competing!” Midnightwarrior whickered in response to her words.

“Oh, sassing me now? Well sooooorry! Didn’t realize you wanted to be a internationally renowned!” the horse nudged her face, causing her to laugh.

“Hey now you don’t have to get the pushy about it!” she teased and rolled away, sitting up and looking out over the fields of Silverglade. 

“Speaking of races, looks like one of the competitions is getting ready,” she pointed toward the crowd gathering at the championship ground near Silverglade. She had taken part in a few such races, but neither she nor Midnightwarrior seemed happy with how crowded the areas were. Plus the races always seemed so ridiculous, random trucks driving all over the place, terrible weather, and random hay bales everywhere. Not to mention the jostling of ten or fifteen riders all starting at once generally resulted in pinned back ears and Midnightwarrior taking a snap at whoever shoved him the hardest. 

“I’m sure you’d just love to go down there and be in another one of those big races,” Rebecca teased, and based on the loud snort and then purposeful drool on the top of her head Midnightwarrior was not amused by that suggestion.

“Oy!” Rebecca jumped up and tried to wipe the grass and slobber from her hair. Midnightwarrior shook his head in response and gave her a nudge. 

“Alright, you’re right. We get enough excitement running away from people trying to kill us or racing to save someone or capture someone before they can escape. We just don’t get medals for those. And while we made a lot of shillings doing races every day for training and reputation, it did get exhausting,” she rambled as she watched the riders line up and the first wave started the long race. Midnightwarrior pawed at the ground, getting his human’s attention.

“What? Do you want to race them?” Rebecca asked with an eyebrow raised. Midnightwarrior snorted before he kneeled down on one knee. 

And then promptly rolled onto his back, scratching and snorting before he returned to his feet, giving one last shake before he sniffed his laughing human’s face.

“I thought not, you’re too lazy for that! Especially when there is grass to graze,” Rebecca plopped back onto the ground, watching her horse return to filling his stomach with as much food as he could.


	4. Fashion

Just when she thought Jorvik couldn’t get any stranger Rebecca found herself involved in a fashion show. Well, she wasn’t necessarily taking part in it, but one way or another she was helping solve some mystery for some strangers. She couldn’t remember why she had tried to get into the Jorvik Fashion Show in the first place, especially since she had to obtain a fake ID to try to get in. It had been a weird day, and after helping some guy into a cardboard uniform she was heading backstage to meet some Franziska Ironsaddle. She had a feeling all she had to do was find the most ridiculously dressed person in the next room and that would be the woman she was looking for.

Turns out it was going to be a lot easier than expected, it appeared that Rebecca had gotten lucky and was backstage between shows, there were only a few people in the dark area. Two of them stood out: a woman dressed all in black wearing large sunglasses and a man in purple with green facial hair. She recognized the guy from somewhere, his name was Hawk or Falcon or something bird related, but she assumed the woman was her target. Strange of her to wear sunglasses inside, was she blind? A blind fashion designer was an odd combination. Perhaps the woman was hung over, or maybe it was fashion that Rebecca couldn’t hope to understand.

Probably the last one.

Rebecca was not surprised when Miss Ironsaddle was rude and insulting but nevertheless grit her teeth and agreed to help the woman. She didn’t like the idea of anyone being drugged, and while the woman was a snob that didn’t mean Rebecca wanted her work to be stolen. She continued to not be surprised when she found Le Goon, and when she saw what he was wearing Rebecca gave up all hope of ever understanding fashion. If that crazy purple and yellow suit was stylish Rebecca decided she would never try to be fashionable. 

She was pleasantly surprised when Franziska Ironsaddle gave her a gift, and was once more surprised when that rapper guy stopped her on her way out.

“Hey yo girl!” he called as he waved to get her attention.

“Uh, hi?” she had a nagging feeling she had seen him somewhere, and not just here.

“I see ya still helpin’ people?” he smirked at her, leaning back and crossing his arms.

“Yea…? Do… do I know you?” that question made him lose his smug expression as he looked at her in bewilderment before pointing to a poster with his face on it. Ah, Raptor, that’s right. She was close with the bird thing.

“I mean besides you being some rapper dude. Like, did we run into each other somewhere? Did I offer to help you or something?” she couldn’t help but feel a bit freaked out that he apparently knew who she was.

“Weren’t you the one I met changing lights?” he seemed to forget his act of being a pompous celebrity as his speech became less exaggerated.

“And I almost feel off Midnightwarrior! That was you!” Rebecca smiled as she remembered the strange encounter. “That’s why you didn’t want me to tell anyone I had seen you! You didn’t need t worry, I had no idea who you were anyway,” she grinned and brought a hand to her mouth as though she was admitting a terrible secret by telling him that.

“You didn’t know who I was? I must be losing my touch!” he laughed, acting insulted.

“In your defense I spend most of my time on a horse, I don’t remember the last time I’ve been on a computer or listened to a radio. World War Three could be happening and I wouldn’t know. Now that I think about it, I might technically be homeless…” Rebecca realized she didn’t have a regular place to sleep, unless she paid for a night near one of the stables. Most of the time she and Midnightwarrior slept outside wherever they happened to be. Sure they might find some shelter, especially in a place like Dino Valley, but she couldn’t remember the last time she slept in a bed. Raptor seemed less than calm about her muttered realization.

“What do you mean homeless? Is there anyone you can stay with? Can you afford food? Are you eating enough?” his rapid-fire questions made her throw up her hands to try to slow him down and she took a step back.

“It’s really okay! Food isn’t an issue! I probably could figure out a place to live, I’m just always traveling around, you know? Working at different stables and-“

“Helping people?” her assurances seemed to calm him down, and she wondered why he had gotten so frantic in the first place. 

“Yea, pretty much. Speaking of which I’m sure I am needed elsewhere, unless you need help with something?” 

“Oh I’m ready for the show!” he exclaimed, striking a confident pose that made her snicker.

“You should come see, there will be fashion, and of course me,” he added.

“I’ll definitely try!” she agreed, giving him a final wave as she left the backstage area. It wasn’t until after she had left that Raptor realized he still didn’t know her name, but with how much the girl had talked to Franziska he could probably get the name from the designer.


	5. Practice

Rebecca had been in Jorvik for less than a week, but she had already had her share of adventures. She hoped that as she was helping around Silverglade things would calm down a bit and she wouldn’t have to save anyone else from being trapped or prevent a stable from being torn down. But she couldn’t help but feel intimidated in an unfamiliar place without any friends. It was just her and Midnightwarrior, helping strangers with random tasks like dealing with mice and fetching tools and mining iron. So she was relieved to see a friendly face that she recognized: Justin. She may have only known him for a few days, but that was longer that just about anyone else on the island.

“Hello again, Rebecca!” Justin called when he saw her, “I was out for a tour. Checking rune stones, you know. I was hoping to see you. Just wanted to see if everything is fine with you.”

“Oh, can’t complain. Everyone here, or mostly everyone, is quite nice! I hope I can start jumping soon though, it would make competing in the races around here easier,” Rebecca pulled Midnightwarrior along side Justin’s horse so that they could talk.

“Oh? You have not tried to jump yet?” Justin seemed surprised.

“Well, no, I kind of thought someone had to teach me first, since back in Moorland I had to prove I could ride before I could go faster than a canter,” Rebecca mumbled, wondering if they had expected her to just know how to jump all on her own.

“Let’s build a simple obstacle and I’ll see if I can give you a lesson!” Justin offered, and in no time she had pulled together a basic jump to practice over. 

Unfortunately jumping over the obstacle was much harder than assembling it.

The first time Rebecca tried to jump too early, and Midnightwarrior snorted and stopped. The next two times they waited too long and slid to a halt. Justin tried to give pointers but she couldn’t figure out when to jump, which resulted in missing their jump window.

“Relax, Rebecca, you’ll get this, it just takes practice. You’re tensing up and it is making Midnightwarrior worried. Just try to lean into the jump, he knows what to do,” Justin called to her when Midnightwarrior halted and backed away from the jump. Rebecca grumbled nothing intelligent under her breath as she trotted the Jorvik Warmblood in a few circles around the jump. When he was once more relaxed she tried again, only to have Midnightwarrior refuse the jump.

“Come on, you know it isn’t a big jump! You could step over it if you really wanted to!” Rebecca groaned in frustration as Justin told her to try again. Midnightwarrior snorted and stomped, flicking his ears back to her and forward. He seemed to be considering the possibility that he could, in fact, step over it, and the only warning Rebecca had was his tensing legs.

Instead of hopping over the small jump, Midnightwarrior decided the best way to clear the jump was to leap right up into the air, all his legs pulled tight to his body before he kicked them out and whinnied for good measure. His poor human grabbed him and held on as hard as she could, half falling out of the saddle when he landed on the other side of the jump, head and tail held triumphantly.

“I did it!” Rebecca beamed as she let herself drop to the ground on her side. Justin was by her side in a moment to make sure she was fine.

“Pronking doesn’t count!” he exclaimed as she stood and brushed herself off.

“I made it over the jump, therefore I did it!” she grinned at him and walked toward her horse, who after seeing she was okay had headed toward the green grass. 

“I don’t think immediately coming off your horse counts…” Justin muttered as Rebecca called her horse back to her. To Justin’s surprise, Midnightwarrior happily left his grazing to return to his human, and much to Rebecca’s surprise Midnightwarrior decided the fastest way to get back to her was to gracefully fly over the jump he had refused earlier. The two humans stood in shock as Midnightwarrior snorted, as though chuckling at his own cheekiness. 

“You are such a jerk!” Rebecca threw a handful of grass at her horse who flung up his head and whinnied, still pleased with himself and his human’s good natured tone of voice. Justin, meanwhile, was laughing as Rebecca tried to grab the reins to her horse who decided to have a bit more fun and jump back over the obstacle out of her reach.

“You’ll be fine,” Justin managed through his laughs, although he was sure Rebecca didn’t hear as she chased after her naughty horse.


	6. Shadow

Being the bad guy was fun, it meant breaking the rules and being free to do whatever you wanted and not caring about the consequences. Or at least that is how it had been at first, initially there was exhilaration from leaving home forever to join his grandfather and become an important part of his grandfather’s plans. His grandfather had made it quite clear that he was invaluable, they would not be able to do it without them. And what they were doing was glorious: unlimited power, enough to power all of humanity for the rest of time, and with that literal power in the form of energy came the figurative power from the control over who could get, or afford, that limitless energy. They would rule the world! Dark Core would no longer have to hide their power in the shadows, everything would be illuminated by the power of Garnok and Pandoria, and everyone would have to listen to them. 

But the initial thrill of doing something important and risky had worn off, and Justin found himself terribly bored these days. There wasn’t much for him to do on the oil platform, and it was not uncommon for the three girls to be gone on assignments, watching the druids from the shelter of darkness and mystery. Even when the three girls were around they were wary of him, still viewing him as an outsider even though their boss had urged them to accept his grandson. He decided they were probably jealous of him, he was obviously his grandfather’s favorite after all, being his blood and the most important Dark Rider. Without him they could not win. Although he had yet to learn any of the tricks that the girls knew, his grandfather told him it was because they did not yet have his horse from Pi. The witch had tricked them, or been tricked herself, and now they had no idea where his horse was. It made the whole situation a bit lonelier, he didn’t even have his faithful horse with him. 

This led to Justin’s bad habit of wandering around the drilling platform for hours on end, going nowhere but where he had begun. Sometimes he would hide in the shadows, sneaking around trying not to be noticed. That girl had managed to get in without anyone noticing, and Justin had learned the various ways to sneak around the security in a few short hours. It was like being a spy, or doing some sort of ninja sneak training, and it made things slightly more interesting. It was also turning into a way to prove himself. He couldn’t learn tricks or magic until he had his horse, but he could master stealth in the meantime, and who needed stupid magic tricks when you could remain undetected? If he could just prove to his grandfather that he was capable of not getting caught then perhaps he’d finally be allowed to do missions, either with just one of the girls instead of all three or totally on his own. Then he could show the girls why he was his grandfather’s favorite, maybe then they would include him more. At least that is what he hoped for, last time he had brought it up with his grandfather it had not gone well. His grandfather was worried that the druids would catch him and use their brain washing mind control powers to convert him. His grandfather had also been against the idea of bringing in the new girl from the stables, the one who had managed to sneak into their base before. If only he could remember her name, there were moments were he thought he remembered her but he would always lose her name somewhere on the tip of his tongue. But his grandfather believed the druids had already gotten to her and were controlling her mind, and he did not want to risk bringing her onboard to free her from the druids’ mind powers. While he understood why it would be unwise, he couldn’t help but feel a little bitter over it. He wasn’t sure why but he felt like the girl would have been a good friend if they had a chance to work together, but that was not an option now.

“I have considered what you said,” his grandfather’s voice startled him from his perch on some overhead pipes. The boy grumbled and came down, he still couldn’t figure out how his grandfather always managed to find him, like he could just sniff his grandson out. 

“About what, grandfather?” Justin followed his grandfather as he was led somewhere.

“I understand your frustration, stuck here bored and helpless, desperate to prove yourself,” Mr. Sands continued, and by now Justin knew better than to be surprised by his grandfather’s intuition and ability to read him.

“Does that mean you’re going to start training me? Or give me a mission?” Justin tried not to sound too excited but he was grinning to himself in anticipation. Finally!

“In a manner of speaking. Your training, and first assignment of sorts, begins with a gift in this room,” the grandfather stopped outside an unremarkable looking door, one that looked like all the others on the platform. It was just a random room with a small plate saying which room it was based on a number system, and Justin did not understand.

“I know you will not fail me,” Mr. Sands said with a sure smile and a hand on his grandson’s shoulder. His smile twisted into a sneer as Justin opened the door and stepped inside. 

One step, that was all Justin took for him to realize what was in the shadows of the room, his gift wrapped in chains and held from the ceiling. The steel shifted, tinkling as two eyes looked at him from the darkness.

“… Justin?”


	7. Forest

“We’re finally in the Harvest Counties!” Rebecca whispered to Midnightwarrior as they raced past the eccentric inn owner. They gave in to the desire to explore over the notion of heading to Jorvik Stables and Jarlaheim. Plus she wasn’t too interested in using a chain saw to clear the road at the moment. So instead of following the road to Greendale she turned Midnightwarrior north and headed toward the great fields she had seen from the Riding Arena near the Winery.

Midnightwarrior jumped, just as happy and excited as she was about being in a new place and seeing Silverglade from the other side of the water. But as they left the formal road behind Midnightwarrior slid to a stop, tense and silent. She could feel it too, the exhilaration of exploring replaced by a heavy sense that something was wrong and they should not be there. She didn’t say anything as she gave Midnightwarrior a slight squeeze.

“What happened here?” the horse, of course, did not answer her question as they walked through the forgotten fields. It was so quiet, and aside from some buildings in the distance there seemed to be no life at all. Even the bugs and birds were muted, just barely audible as though they had to be as quiet as possible. As though guided by the sense of unease, the horse and rider found themselves at the remains of a massive stump. She wasn’t sure why, but seeing the dead tree made her feel very sick and hurt, as though she had come across a grave marking a dear friend. Midnightwarrior seemed to feel the same, snorting and twitching until she turned him away and let him run back to the road. He didn’t stop running until the road was blocked by overgrown vegetation, the very block that Rebecca had a chain saw to deal with.

“Maybe Jarlaheim will have a library, or someone will be able to tell me what happened in the Forgotten Fields,” she thought out loud as she removed the road block, and her agitation faded away as she looked at the forest before her. Greendale. It certainly lived up to its green name. Midnightwarrior had visibly relaxed as well, distracted by the healthy forest. This time their walk was not out of a sense of trespassing but taking in the soothing scenery. The birds and insects were much louder here, the underbrush rustled from busy creatures, and up ahead horseshoes clacked on the cobblestone road.

Midnightwarrior was the first to greet the oncoming horse, giving a curious whicker as Rebecca started in wonder. She had never seen a horse like it before, white with blue markings and a blue mane and tail. People had talked about the starbreed within earshot of her, and she had read about them while researching Jorvik before she came, but she hadn’t realized how blue they really were. She always thought it was a sort of blue roan marking, more of a gray with the illusion of blue, but this horse before her looked like it had dipped its legs and face into light blue paint. The horse she was gawking at paid her no mind, in fact it didn’t even twitch its ears when Midnightwarrior neighed to it. Rebecca could hear the sound of metal striking the ground, she knew the strange horse belonged to someone if it was walking around with shoes on, but she saw no tack.

“Hey sweetie!” she called, following the horse as it ambled into the forest. It picked up to a canter, wandering aimlessly through the trees, never noticing the horse and rider following. The horse didn’t look ill or injured, yet it still seemed troubled, and based on how it seemed to have no rhyme or reason to where it cantered Rebecca couldn’t help but wonder if it was looking for something. After following the horse for almost an hour she decided it wasn’t going to leave the forest, it always turned back before it went too far from the trees, and she made a mental note to ask around Jorvik Stables about missing horses.


	8. Halloween

Rebecca lit the candles in the pumpkins, helping out with decorating the Winery for Halloween. She heard the door to the cellar open and saw her friend descending, no doubt to get more supplies.

“Hey, Anna,” Rebecca called, following her friend down into the darkness. Anna cast her a smile and then a yelp of surprise when Rebecca grabbed her and pulled her into one of the side rooms.

“Anna, I gotta talk to you-“

“Oooh my! Are you going to declare your undying love for me? How romantic~!” Anna teased.

“I did that yesterday, no I wanted to talk to you about something weird happening here,” Rebecca whispered, putting the jokes aside.

“It’s Halloween, and Jorvik, there are actual ghosts and witches around. What else could be weird?”

“Exactly, it’s Halloween,” Rebecca insisted, Anna shaking her head and not understanding.

“Why did you come to Jorvik?” Rebecca began again, confusing Anna even more.

“To stay the summer and try to get into the Jorvik Equine Institute, same as you. What does that have to do with anything?” Anna answered with a shrug.

“Now, granted, I’m from the US, but last I checked Halloween happened in autumn. And then there is Christmas,” Rebecca trailed off, looking at Anna expectantly.

“Christmas last year was so fun here! I’m excited for next Christmas, I hope we can get that special powder again to change our horses into reindeer!” 

“Okay go back to the first thing you said,” Rebecca tried to get Anna to realize what she said without spelling it out.

“Christmas was fun?” Anna said slowly, still not understanding.

“And what else?” Rebecca sighed.

“I’m excited for next Christmas?”

“No go back,” Rebecca motioned with her hands to no avail.

“I don’t understand.”

“You said Christmas last year was fun.”

“Well yeah, it was,” Anna smiled brightly, remembering how pretty Jorvik was covered in snow.

“But we’re only on Jorvik for the summer. How is it we’ve managed to go through Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Easter, Midsummer, and back to Halloween if we’re only supposed to be here for a summer?” Rebecca’s voice dropped back down to a whisper, as though unraveling the mystery would put them in jeopardy. 

“Because… Jorvik is weird, okay? Haven’t you noticed how days just sort of melt together?” Anna understood but the realization made her uncomfortable.

“Yeah… I have. It worries me. It’s like… I dunno. I feel like I’m in a coma, and I’m going to just wake up and find out the past year and a half haven’t been real,” she had noticed that sometimes she could go talk to someone and then she’d be able to continue working as though a day had passed, and she knew it should be physically impossible for her to do every single race and chore on Jorvik in a day. And yet she managed to complete all the possible things she could do every day if she wished.

“Well then what does that make me?” Anna smirked, nudging Rebecca’s shoulder.

“Don’t be silly, we’ve been talking to each other for almost a decade now. You should be honored you’re in my coma dream, my subconscious must really want to meet you,” Rebecca smiled back at her friend, returning to humor.

“Awww, so it was a declaration of love after all!” Anna said in mock shyness, a hand covering her mouth.

“Isn’t it always? But seriously, conspiracy theory?”

“We’ll add it to the list of conspiracy theories for this place,” Anna agreed.

“Speaking of which, any leads on this giant computer?” Rebecca nodded to the computer in the room they were having their secret discussion in.

“No, not yet. I still think it is a relic from World War 2. Or aliens,” Anna shrugged, the aliens suggestion not at all a joke.

“We did find that spaceship up in the mountains. It’s probably Jorvik’s secret space program. Why did you come down here anyway?” Rebecca recalled that she had seen Anna heading down here, there must have been a reason.

“Oh! They have cobweb decorations down here. Although I’m not sure how I’m supposed to tell the real ones from the fake ones,” Anna muttered, looking around at the dust and webs everywhere in the corners.

“I’ll help,” Rebecca offered, no surprise to Anna, and together they went toward what may or may not have been a pile of fake cobwebs.


End file.
